Hi, church. I’m so glad to be sharing with you today. Today, I want to start a new series and every year at term 3, we always do a book of the Bible and so, we’ve looked at different books of the Bible the last few years. We’ve looked at the book of James. We’ve looked at the book of Nehemiah.
We’ve looked at the songs of Ascent in the Book of Psalms and so today, I want to start a new series and over the course of the next couple of months, myself and the rest of our preaching team will be preaching from the same book of the Bible and it’s going to be really exciting. First of all, I want to welcome those of you who’ve come back from holidays. I know that a number of you are away on school holidays and you come back today and so I’m so glad that you’re here and also to just a reminder that today is actually the last Sunday that the breakthrough offering is open. Back on June 11, we launched our breakthrough offering and from that, we service and honor all our missions, commitments but more than that, we believe for breakthroughs in people’s lives. And so far already over the course of this season we’ve been seeing great breakthroughs in people’s lives.
I just know I know at one of our campuses, one of our members who had a lot of medical bills. Uh essentially the medication that they needed were going to cost them $1, 300 a month. Which is incredibly expensive. After the breakthrough offering was launched they actually found out that it was no longer going to be $1, 300 a month. But actually their bills were going to $30 a month.
Now, that is absolutely incredible and that’s just one of the stories that we have seen come through regarding miracles and breakthroughs as a result of the breakthrough offering. And so today is the last day for it to be open and so if you want to give today feel free to go to the Hello Hub afterwards Or to give online. And we’re going to believe with you for breakthrough. Now, today, as I mention, we’re going to be launching our new series and today, we’re going to be looking at five of the the next couple of months, we’re going to be looking at the book of Proverbs. Now, Proverbs is probably the most practical book in the whole of scripture.
It was written by it was acknowledged to be written by King Solomon and it’s all about Proverbs or Wise sayings to help us live the Christian life that God has called us to live. Proverbs is one of three of the wisdom literature books. Uh the other two books are Job and Ecclesiastes but Proverbs is so practical and so helpful us to live our Christian life. Now, with the book of Proverbs, we’re going to be looking at at it slightly differently than we have in other books. In the past, we’ve looked at our books in an audit and expository fashion.
So, what that means is we’ve gone through them often chapter by chapter but this time, we’re going to look at Proverbs a little bit more thematically and a little bit more topically because there’s a number of key themes that are coming through the entire book that are interspersed right throughout Proverbs and so we going to be looking at the book of Proverbs and isolating a number of key themes. And today I’m going to open it up which is with the primary theme that we can see right throughout the book. And the theme is actually that of wisdom. Wisdom. Proverbs was written in such a way to help us gain the wisdom we need to live the life that God wants us to live.
Proverbs chapter one verse one says this. It says the Proverbs of Solomon the son of David King of Israel. Now, Solomon was known as the wisest, most knowledgeable man in the history of the earth. Bible tells us that God actually in request to his prayers, God gave him the wisdom and the knowledge that he needed to actually be the leader that God has called him to be and he writes Proverbs and and a lot of these are sayings attributed to him to help us live wisely the life God has called us to live and so, I want to talk to you today about five facts about wisdom that we can find in the book of Proverbs. The first thing about wisdom is this, Wisdom begins with God.
There’s a number of passages that actually show us that wisdom is actually founded upon and begins with the Lord. Uh Proverbs one verse seven says this. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 910 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
And the knowledge of the holy one is understanding. Proverbs chapter three verse seven says this. Not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. So what that means is this.
The foundation of wisdom is actually having a fear of the Lord. That true wisdom is founded upon God’s authority and God’s word. That’s what the fear of the Lord is. It’s an acknowledgement of God’s power and God’s authority. There’s lots of wisdom out there.
There’s lots of life hacks. There’s lots of thoughts. In today’s day and age everybody’s an expert out there on the internet. But at the end of the day the beginning and foundation of all true wisdom is a fear of the Lord. What that means is this, it’s acknowledging that God knows better than I do.
I love the story of Solomon who wrote the Proverbs and the Bible tells us that God actually came to him in a dream. And said to him, ask of me whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. Now, that’s a pretty good night. I mean, that’s an open checkbook. And basically, Solomon asked, he said to the Lord, Lord, give me wisdom and knowledge because I need that to be the leader that you’ve called me to be, to lead God’s people.
And so here is who got his wisdom from God telling every single one of us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fearing the Lord and the and the knowledge of God is actually the beginning of the of wisdom for all of us. I love what Billy Graham actually says about preaching. You know Billy Graham I saw an interview with him and he actually says God has shown me the secret to preaching. I remember looking at that and thinking to myself wow.
I mean if he has the secret to preaching to know what that is. Billy Graham’s probably the greatest evangelist of that was definitely the greatest evangelist of the 20th century. And this is what he said was the secret and the key to preaching. He says the secret was this. I have a scripture for every point.
And that was it. But what was he saying? He was actually saying the authority comes from God’s word. That’s the foundation of it. And in the same way the foundation of wisdom is actually God’s word having a fear of him. What that means is any philosophy, any thought must come subject to the word of God.
Word of the word of God is actually primary. We are not all knowing as people. We must acknowledge that God knows everything. The Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter fourteen verse twelve. There is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death.
Or another translation says but in the end is destruction. What that means is that we might think we know the right way. But in the end God actually knows the right way. And so we need to acknowledge that God know everything. He knows even greater than what we do.
There’s a type of ethical decision making called utilitarianism. And utilitarianism basically says that the right decision to make in any circumstance is the one that actually produces the greatest result. So if you’ve got a number of different options the right decision is the one that produces the greatest result. However, utilitarianism has one major flaw. And the flaw is this.
It is assuming that we actually know what right result is going to be. And that’s why when it comes to making any kind of decision God’s word needs to be primary. Because he knows the end from the beginning. He can see circumstances and outcomes that we can’t even see. And so the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
It’s the classic story about if you want to think about it it’s a little bit like how we got cane toads here in Queensland. Now obviously right now we was a people of you know passionate about a cane toad supporter and barracking for the Maroons and that sort of thing. But did you know how cane tones actually came into Australia? Basically what happened was that there was a there was a beetle that was causing all these problems amongst the sugarcane. And so it was causing and it was destroying crops. And so some Bright Spark decided you know what we need to do? We need to import a Brazilian frog to come and destroy all these beetles and it’s going to help us and help our but what they didn’t realize is what we know now.
That not only did it not actually kill the beetle but it’s become an absolutely massive pest. We thought people thought they knew what the outcome would be but they did not understand the repercussions of that decision. In the same way, the fear of the Lord actually means, we’re going to trust what God says because he knows the repercussions of any decision that we make. Even now in our society, there’s lots of and lots of decisions making in society. Sometimes they’re actually going against what God’s word is.
and people will say, well, you know, it’s not the sky’s not going to fall. It’s not going to cause a massive problem. But I want to let you know that God actually knows the outcome. If he tells us, he gives us a command regarding something that we need to trust that he he knows the best outcome for us. And so before we get into any kind of thinking or any kind of teaching, we need to understand that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
The second thing about wisdom is that wisdom actually builds your life. Proverbs chapter three verses thirteen to eighteen says this. Happy is the man who finds wisdom. So notice this. When you gain wisdom, you’re happy.
And look at what happens. It says in the man who gains understanding. For her proceeds are better than the prophets of silver. And her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies.
And all the things you may desire cannot compare her. Length of days is in her right hand. So see that? Wisdom gives us length of days. In her left hand is riches and honour. So wisdom can produce riches and honour.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness. All her paths of peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her. And happy are all who retain her. See that? Wisdom.
Godly wisdom actually produces a better life. And so wisdom actually helps build your life. Now, Proverbs actually talks a lot about three factors. Talks a lot about knowledge, talks about understanding, and it talks about wisdom and all three of those things are actually distinct. Knowledge essentially is information.
Knowledge is knowing what to do. And so that’s really, really important. In our information age right now, there’s a lot of knowledge out there. And there’s a lot of information. But actually That’s just incomplete.
We also have understanding. And understanding is knowing the reason why we need to do something. But wisdom is different again. Wisdom is actually the principle thing. Cuz wisdom is knowing how to do something.
It’s one thing to know what to do. And it’s another thing to know why to do it. But it’s another thing to know how to do it. You might have a situation in your life. That you know needs changing.
Maybe it’s a situation. Maybe it’s an issue in your marriage. You know that that needs change and you have knowledge. You know why it needs changing. You have understanding because you know it’ll be better for your life.
But maybe the reason why you’re stuck in the situation that you’re in is because you don’t know how to change it. That’s where wisdom comes in. Wisdom actually is about building our lives and teaching us how to live the life that God has called us to live. The third thing about wisdom is this. And that is that wisdom can be gotten.
Proverbs chapter four five to seven says this. Get wisdom. Get understanding. Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her and she will preserve you.
Love her and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom and all you’re getting get understanding. So notice this. The Bible here tells us in Proverbs that we can get wisdom.
How awesome is that? What that means is this, just because you don’t have wisdom now, doesn’t mean you can’t get it. Life doesn’t have to be futile. There is an ability. God is telling us here, we can get the wisdom that we need to actually live the life that God has for us. Notice this, it says in verse seven, the wisdom is the principle thing.
It’s the most important thing but we can actually get it. Now, Solomon who was attributed as being the author of Proverbs, he knows this first hand. Because he got his wisdom directly from God. He asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him. But did you know that actually not just Solomon but we can get wisdom as well.
The Bible tells us in the book of James if any of us lack wisdom, we can ask God for wisdom and he’ll give it to us freely and liberally. So what that means is this, you might have a situation and you don’t know what to do. It’s a perfect time to actually ask God for help. That we can actually ask him for wisdom. I know myself, I’ve had many, many times when I’ve had some situations and I didn’t know what to do.
And I wasn’t sure and I felt like I was stuck. There have been a number of times that after prayer and after asking God, God has actually given me the wisdom that I need. In fact, one of the nine spiritual gifts is actually called Word of Wisdom and so often, God can give you a word of wisdom just by asking to help you to navigate the situation that you’re in right now. So, we can ask him for wisdom. That’s one way of getting it but another way of getting wisdom is by getting it through other people.
What that means is there’s times when you don’t know what to do and you need some help and and you’ve asked God and God hasn’t answered you. That doesn’t mean you can’t get the wisdom. It just means that we might need to get it from another person. I read a revelation a number of years ago because I thought that everything I needed to know God would tell me directly. Either from my own time with the Lord or my own personal time spending time in God’s word.
I thought God would tell me everything I need to know directly. But that’s actually not true. There are some things God will speak to us. He’s got information that we need that we’re actually going to have to get from somebody else. That’s why it’s important for us to be in a church and be part of a community of believers.
Cuz I I I would hazard a guess that the situation that you find yourself in right now. The answer might be tied up in the life of somebody else. Someone else might have your answer. In Acts chapter ten I’ve mentioned many times over the years the story of a man by the name of Cornelius. Cornelius was a soldier in the Italian regiment.
And the Bible said he was a God fearer and he was and he would pray regularly. And he was praying one day and an angel. The angel Gabriel came and visited him. And the angel just said to him go and get Simon Peter. So he went and got Simon Peter.
Simon Peter came back to him. Simon Peter preached the gospel to him. And then Cornelius actually gave his life to Christ. He and his whole family. And they all got baptised in the Holy spirit.
The Bible says that the Holy Spirit came upon all of them and they all started speaking in other tongues. But interestingly enough I remember thinking to myself well how come the angel didn’t tell him? The angel could have preached the gospel to him. The angel could have told him the information that Peter had for him. But one of the major principles of it is this. God has information for us.
That is just he’s not going to tell us directly. That has actually tied up in the life of somebody else. We can get wisdom from others. One of the things I try to do is to expose myself and to learn from other people. We try and I remember this I remember this learning this ah very much about twenty something years ago.
Basically what had happened was my senior pastor at the time I was a youth pastor and he said to me, he said, Ben, what could we do to help you develop your leadership? And I said, I’d love to go and have a look at different youth ministries and so he funded for me to go and look at different youth ministries around Australia and I remember at the end of that weekend, I had made a list of a number of things that we needed to do for our youth ministry and we came back and implemented it and not long after that, we saw explosive growth as a result of it. See, the wisdom was out there. I knew what we needed to do. We needed to take the ministry to another level but I didn’t know how but in going and talking and seeing these other youth ministries, I got the wisdom that I needed to help me actually end up taking things to another level. If you live a life of isolation.
If you live a life full of pride where you think that you can’t ask anyone for help, chances are you might be stuck in the rut that you’re in. But if you are willing to open yourself up, be open to get wisdom from God but also get wisdom from other people, The wisdom you need is accessible to you. That’s why all through Proverbs, it talks about wisdom is shouting aloud in the streets. Wisdom is out there. But we need to be willing to get it.
You can get wisdom that you need. We do this even for our church staff. We try to expose them to other things. Every year I take my key staff to go and look at another ministry. And then we look and we see what they do and we come back with a couple of things that will help our church better.
And so often we see things that we didn’t see. We see things that we didn’t realise. And it helps us to go to another level. The wisdom you need is available. If you’re willing to go and get it.
The next thing about wisdom is this, is that wisdom can be gotten but also wisdom can be bought. In Proverbs twenty-three twenty-three, it says, buy the truth and do not sell it. Also, wisdom and instruction and understanding. He’s actually saying that we can buy wisdom. What that means is this, sometimes you have to pay for wisdom.
Sometimes, you know, in a if you’ve got an error of your life which is an area of weakness which is an area where you’ve got defeat and you’ve tried to get victory particular area and you’ve sought some help in it and things haven’t happened. Maybe what you need to do is buy the help. What does that mean? Buy the advice that we actually need. There’s a book that’s a secular book and it’s called The Millionaire Mindset. And basically it talks about the mindset of super wealthy people.
And in this book it talks about how the millionaire mindset is one that they will actually spend resources to get the information, the knowledge, and the wisdom they need in a particular area. They actually set aside funds to actually do that. And that’s different from a different mindset which is very much I’ve gotta find the answer for myself. In the Millionaire Mindset it says that successful people have the wisdom to know that they can go and seek out and even buy the knowledge that they need. Um just ah earlier this year my wife and I wanted to improve our health and and so what we did was we actually you know hired hired someone to do some testing on us.
And so they did some testing on us and basically do a whole battery of tests and then what it does is it shows what kind of body type that you are and then it tailors your lifestyle around your body type. And so Trish and I have different body types and there’s different things, factors that affect our health differently because we’re unique people. With me the number one factor for my body type that actually affects my health was actually the was actually I was actually stress. And so stress affects everybody and affects body in different ways but for my body type, stress is actually something that actually is the number one indicator for health. So, more than actually diet and more than exercise and I used to exercise quite strenuously and quite vigorously but it was like it didn’t seem to be making a whole lot of difference to my health and so, after doing this, we made a few adjustments.
We learned that it’s really important for me to gently deal with stress at the end of each day and stress is just a normal part of life. Stress be both good and bad but if it stays in your system it’s not good especially for someone like me. And so we were fortunate that the place where we live they actually have a sauna. And so most nights Trish and I will go and have a sauna and that was my way of dealing with and getting rid of the stress. Also it showed me the best times to exercise for myself.
And so I used to exercise early in the morning. But that wasn’t good. It would actually strain and stress my body. And it worked out that it’s better for me to exercise in the afternoon. So to mope a number of the looks just little differences associated with that.
Well, straight after that, I’ve been feeling a million bucks. I feel the best I’ve ever felt since before we took over the church or feel fantastic fantastic, full of energy, actually able to wear some pants and jeans that I haven’t worn for about three or four years and it’s been a really balanced and a whole lot easier and I feel like it’s a it’s I’ve been able to find the key and the wisdom I need to live a healthier lifestyle. But did you know God did not tell that to me directly? That didn’t come from any internet research. It got to the point where we actually had to pay for someone to give us the advice that we need. It’s okay the Bible tells us to don’t be afraid to buy wisdom.
If you’ve got an area of defeat in your life that you’ve had for many many years don’t be afraid in investing and trying to improve it. If you’ve always struggled financially, if you’ve always wasted money or not done well in that area, then don’t be afraid to get a financial advisor. If it’s your health, if it’s your marriage, if it’s your family, whatever it is, if there’s an area, if in your business, if you feel like your business has hit a lead and you don’t know how to take it further, if the Bible tells us, it’s okay to buy wisdom in order to take your life to a whole new level. And the last thing, that about wisdom is this, wisdom begets humility. So, what that means is this, if you want to, if we want to grow in wisdom, we actually have to be humble.
Proverbs one verse seven says this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction. To actually get wise, we actually need to be teachable. To get wise, we actually need to be humble. We need to acknowledge and admit that we actually don’t have all the answers. In Proverbs one verses twenty to 3three talks about wisdom and the getting of wisdom.
And I just want to highlight a couple of verses in that passage. Says in verse twenty wisdom calls aloud outside. So what that means is this the wisdom we need is somewhere near us. The wisdom we need is actually available. So she raises her voice in the open squares.
She cries out in the chief concourses. At the openings of the gate in the city she speaks her words. Verse to. How long you simple ones? Will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning. Fools hate knowledge.
Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will put my spirit upon you. Look at verse twenty-five. Because you disdained all my counsel. And would have none of my rebuke.
Look at verse thirty. They would have none of my counsel. And despised my every rebuke. So that indicating there how we get wisdom. How do we get wisdom from counsel and from rebuke? They’re the two ways we get it.
So what that means is being vulnerable enough and open enough to actually learn from somebody else. But also to from being open enough to admitting that there are times that we are wrong. Rebuke can come in many forms. Rebuke can come from somebody rebuking us. But rebuke can actually just come from life.
We’re life circumstances. We keep doing something and doing it the wrong way and rebuke and we and life actually rebukes us. You know, there’s an old definition of insanity and that is that doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. A wise person will know that, you know what, this isn’t working. This is not the right result that we’re wanting.
They’re allowing life to rebuke them and I’m willing to change tack but a proud person is someone who says, I’m not going to change, I’m stubborn, I’m not going to be open to rebuke, I don’t want to listen to somebody else. That’s why wisdom actually is founded upon actually being humble. Wisdom begets humility. You know one of the things I’ve learnt is that it’s important sometimes to process criticism. Every single one of us will get some kind of criticism at some point.
You know sometimes in life it seems like right now that out in the world that you have to affirm everything and everyone and every view and that sort of thing. But I just don’t believe that’s actually going to help anybody get better we need to be open to criticism. We need to be teachable and open to outside perspectives and opinions. I used to laugh when I used to watch Australian Idol. They always used to show in Australian Idol all the times when the people were auditioning to get on Australian Idol.
And there’d be thousands of people auditioned and I wrote some friends who who went on Australian Idol and others that auditioned. And they would say that there was a lot of really good singers that they never gave an audition to. But they always made sure the best singers got an audition. But they always made sure that people who could not got an audition. And that was because that the make the auditions funny and people would laugh.
But it’s amazing. You’d see people come and they’d get on the audition and they’d sing and you can tell they’re terrible and we listen to them and they’re awful and you look at the faces of the judges and the judges are looking at each other and saying what’s going on here and but the person themselves doesn’t know. And then the judge will say listen you’re not going through. You’re not good enough to get on Australian Idol. And the person will be indignant.
They’ll be like no I’m amazing singer. You know don’t you kill my dream and and it’s like this person foolish. You’re not actually good enough to actually do that job. But a lack of teachability and a lack of openness actually means that they’re not actually going to learn or actually grow from the experience. We need to have a level of humility.
To be open to correction. But also open to learning. And open to teaching. You know couple of years ago. Oh no not even a couple of years ago.
About 18 months ago. I was approached by someone a well-known person in our movement and one of the things they do that they give advice and coaching and that sort of thing to to senior pastors and and I remember meeting them. I knew them and we had a good conversation and and they offered their services to see if I wanted any help or wanted any advice with things we’re doing as a church. I’ll be honest with you. When they first came and saw me, I thought, mate, no way.
You know, like, God will tell me what I need to know. Uh we’ll be fine. Uh and you know, and I was a little bit, look, you know, I don’t need any help. We actually doing pretty good anyway. Things have been going pretty well and and I remember and you know and it was going to cost the fee to do it and that sort of thing and and I went and I I mentioned it to Trish.
And Trish said she goes you know what? I think it’d be good. And I said really? She goes I think it’ll be good. Now our church had been continually growing gradually and things were moving forward but Tristan I think it’d be good for us. So I said okay. So I had a consultation and remember on the first time we met at the we highlighted a couple of areas that I didn’t lies are actually weaknesses in our church.
And we said about over the next 12 months on rectifying those. And the person actually said to me, they said, you know, I reckon within 12 months, the church could grow by average attendance about 300 people on a Sunday. And I remember thinking, no way. I’m thinking that’s not. That’s that’d be unbelievable.
And then not long after that, we had a very Covid affected start to the last year and so that really affected that and but it’s been eighteen months since we had that advice and last week I had the staff together. Every year we do a half time really look at where we are statistically. I I really ah show ah you know figures and numbers to our staff because you know that’s not the primary reason we exist. The primary reason we exist is to see individuals lives impacted but it is good for us sometimes to take a step back and have a look at how we’re going as a church and and I looked at it and I got things ready to show the staff and I realised that compared to 12 months this time last year our average attendance was up by four00. A right across our and I thought to myself, my goodness and I realized one of the reasons before it was this, there’s a lot of reasons.
We got a lot of people that work really hard and we’ve got a great team and great people in our church but one of the reasons was we’re able to get a bit of advice from the outside. I was able to help us to tweak and improve, give us wisdom to do what we we knew we needed, wanted to improve and do better, gave us a little bit of wisdom and it took our life to a whole new level but I had to humble myself in order to be to receive it. My prayer for every single one of you over the course of the next 2 months right across our church. That every time when myself and one of our teams share on one of the themes from Proverbs, our desire is that your life will work better. Our desire is that your life will improve.
The things you need, get that life, you will get more handles from the word of God. To help you to live the life that God has called us to live. And Proverbs of all the books in the Bible is the one is all about wisdom and practical application for our lives. And my prayer is that for every single one of you that God will help you to actually be able to live this life more effectively for the kingdom of God but also for your own personal future. You know the Bible tells us in Jeremiah 2nine eleven.
Behold the plans I have for you says the Lord. Plans to give you a hope and a future. And God has got a great hope and future for your life. And I believe in God has a great destiny. And I believe that over the course of the next couple of months, God’s going to give us some handles to make life work even better.
